Kia ora koutou,

It’s been so nice to see a bit of sunshine this week after the stormy week the week before. Luckily the school grounds were not damaged during Cyclone Gabrielle, and we could remain open. As we have seen in the media, many parts of New Zealand have not been so lucky, with many displaced families who have lost all of their belongings. Our Roopuu Puaawai Year 7 and 8 students wanted to implement the 6 C of being a ‘Contributor’. With the help of their teachers, they organised a Clothes and Food collection. Thank you to all the families who supported this. The students were really pleased with what was donated. These items will now be put in a shipping container, transported by a Bulk Line truck and then sorted and distributed in the Hawkes Bay area. 

We have some exciting events coming up with Wheels Week starting on Monday, which leads to our Try Challenge on Thursday. Children are invited to bring their bikes or scooters to school on Monday, and these can stay at school over the week. The bikes and scooters will be stored in the learning environments overnight. Our Try-Challenge is a fun event where children will swim, bike or scooter and run through an obstacle course. 

This week, our Senior Leadership Team and the teaching staff have been working on our Charter, particularly our Annual Actions. Our Annual Actions are our school plan of action to help us meet our goals and continue to bring our vision alive. 

Some of our school goals that are reflected in our Charter are

• Ensure all students experience a personalised, future-focussed learning programme, putting children, their interests, aspirations and needs first. 
• To further develop practice that gradually moves the learner to be self-determining. 
• To further develop Assessment for Learning practices so all assessment is relevant, reliable and has the learner at the heart of it.
• To ensure children are experiencing a broad and rich learning programme that integrates all New Zealand Curriculum areas.
• To continue to strengthen our cultural competencies across the school.

In our most recent Professional Learning Session, the teaching team collaborated on what actions we will take as a school and what this looks like across the different learning environments. Our Charter will then be shared with the Board of Trustees and be available for whaanau on our website once it has all been finalised. 

On Tuesday evening, we had our first P.T.A meeting for the year. Our P.T.A is very motivated and has many fundraising events planned for the year. Families will be able to support these events by providing sponsorship, for example, events like the Colour Run and the Golf Day. The money raised by the P.T.A helps us provide an enriching learning programme and well-resourced learning environments.

We look forward to seeing many of you next week at our Try- Challenge and hope you enjoy the rest of your week,

Ngaa mihi nui,

Nyree Olliver